World

A view of Mars showing the planet’s northern polar ice cap. A new study led by The University of Texas at Austin has found remnants of ancient ice caps buried in the north polar region. Courtesy/ISRO / ISSDC / Emily Lakdawalla.

A vertically exaggerated view of Mars’ north polar cap. Researchers estimate that if melted, the massive ice deposits discovered in this region would cover the planet in 1.5 meters (5 feet) of water. Courtesy/SA/DLR/FU Berlin; NASA MGS MOLA Science Team.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges Hong Kong Legislative Council members to reject extradition bill that would allow Beijing to legally prey on residents and visitors, including journalists and their sources.

By July, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) could amend its extradition law, making it legal to hand over residents or visitors accused of a crime in China.

Barranca Elementary School fourth grade student Aditya Viswanathan is one of the winners of the 2019 Ranger Rick photo contest. He took this photo of a mother leopard climbing down a tree at the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya when he was 8 years old on safari with his family in June 2017. A leopard is one of the more difficult animals to see and Aditya managed to capture this fleeting moment nicely framed between the trunks of acacia trees. Look closely and see some blood on her paw since she was feeding at the wildebeest kill she had stashed up in the tree. Courtesy photo

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release of Ma Xiao, a Chinese citizen-journalist who published a series of political prisoners’ interviews and has been detained for a month.

Beijing-based citizen-journalist Xie Qiang, known under the pen name of Ma Xiao, was arrested on April 27 for “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” a deliberately vague charge used by the Chinese regime to silence critics. Ma is a contributor to US-based website

Explore the risks asteroids pose to Earth and what mankind might be able to do about them Friday and Saturday at the Los Alamos Nature Center. Local asteroid expert Galen Gisler will lead a talk at 6 p.m. Friday, May 24, and the nature center will show the full-dome film 'Incoming!' at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 25. Courtesy/PEEC

PEEC News:

Explore the risks asteroid impacts pose to the Earth this Friday and Saturday at the Los Alamos Nature Center’s planetarium.

Artist’s depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. New research suggests the stark difference between the Moon’s heavily-cratered farside and the lower-lying open basins of the nearside were caused by a wayward dwarf planet colliding with the Moon in the early history of the solar system. Courtesy/NASA/JPL-Caltech

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The stark difference between the Moon’s heavily-cratered farside and the lower-lying open basins of the Earth-facing nearside has puzzled scientists for decades.

This legislation, which unanimously passed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, authorizes funding for key intelligence priorities, including programs to address threats emanating from Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran, and enhances congressional oversight of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

This shot of the Full Flower Blue Moon was taken about 3:40 a.m. Saturday in White Rock. A Blue Moon rarely appears blue in the sky, and the name actually has little to do with its color. Usually, a full moon occurs just once a month. Sometimes—about every three years or so—one month will have two full moons. This phenomenon is what is called a Calendrical Blue Moon. But that's not the case this May. According to the Farmers' Almanac, each of the four seasons typically contains three full moons. However, sometimes a season will have four.

An iceberg at Marguerite Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula. New research finds 24 percent of West Antarctic ice is now unstable. Courtesy/Andrew Shepherd

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In only 25 years, ocean melting has caused ice thinning to spread across West Antarctica so rapidly that a quarter of its glacier ice is now affected, according to a new study.

Scientists at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), based at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, have combined 25 years of European Space Agency satellite altimeter measurements and a model of

Inferring from the title, one might anticipate this series is about businesses. It is and it is not.

It is in that as humanity developed, trade became essential. It is not because humanity has a need to survive and that requires working together in an “organized” manner. Perhaps this is better visualized with the bubble model I am fond of.

Checking today, there are 7.7 billion living people on the world. These are individual bubbles bouncing around with dependence on other bubbles and the “fluid” they are in.

Youth Exchange student Lisa Schutt of Switzerland, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Los Alamos, presented a program May 14 about her academic year at Los Alamos High School as it now comes to an end. She will return home to Maeinfeld in three weeks. Schutt said that highlights of her year here included making so many new friends in Los Alamos and through Rotary Youth Exchange activities across the state, visiting the Grand Canyon and San Diego, attending Homecoming and being on the Rotary Club float in the parade, and discovering breakfast burritos. Based upon school requirements in

Cyclical variations in wind and sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean may have contributed to a drought that played an important role in the outcome of the U.S. Civil War, according to a new study.

The new research used tree ring data to reconstruct the influence of El Niño and La Niña conditions on droughts across North America for the past 350 years, including during the American Civil War.

Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Emeritus Terry Wallace will discuss the cosmic and tectonic journey made by the metal gold in three Frontiers in Science public lectures beginning May 20 in Albuquerque.

“Gold is one of the most fascinating of the 4,500 mineral species on Earth, and no mineral (or metal) evokes more emotion,” said geologist Wallace.

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― After reports that U.S. Border Patrol has in recent weeks released more than 4,000 migrants applying for asylum in the United States in Las Cruces, U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) Tuesday sent a letter with U.S.

Santa Fe Japanese Intercultural Network President Casey Janes at the 15th annual Japanese Cultural Festival May 11 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. The event included food and wares, entertainment and kid’s activities. Coordinated by Janes, the theme for this year was Japanese Folktales and the cultural values passed down through the ages in both oral and written traditions. Photo by Tammy Jimines

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After a “sweeping and systemic” disinformation campaign directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to undermine the 2016 elections, and recent warnings from FBI Director Christopher Wray that the United States should be prepared for another attack on the election systems in 2020, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following statement ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Tuesday meeting with President Putin:

Los Alamos High School graduate and basketball star Alex Kirk with his father Alan Kirk Friday in Yokohama Japan as the Alvark Tokyo team repeats as champions of the Japanese B. League after beating the Chiba Jets in the championship game 71-67. Kirk iced two free-throws with 11 seconds left to seal the back-to-back title for Alvark and secure a second consecutive trip to the FIBA Asia Champions Cup later this year. Courtesy photo

SPORTS News:

Los Alamos High School graduate and basketball star Alex Kirk play on the Alvark Tokyo team, which Friday repeated their win of the Japanese B.

A graph of Dahurian larch tree growth from 1964-2014. BAI stands for basal area increment – the amount of area the trees gained in cross-section each year, in square millimeters. The lines represent average growth for trees of different age groups (150 to 200 years old, 200 to 250 years old, 250 to 300 years old, and older than 300 years). The spike in growth around 2004 is evident. Courtesy/AGU/Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― After a two-year investigation into one of the world’s largest dark web marketplaces, the DEA and other law enforcement partners have announced the arrests of three German nationals who operated the site, which sold illegal drugs and other goods to more than a million customers.

The three defendants were arrested April 23-24 in the United States and Germanyand now face charges in both countries for their roles as administrators of the Wall Street Marketplace (WSM). (German charges:

The story of how the Quadrumanics got their name tells you something about the team. The name comes from quadrumana, primates with four hands. Probably, most people reading this didn’t know that, but the team did.